GamePro TV Episode 7 – “Sip and Puff” Edition

This is it. After retrieving my old VHS tape of GamePro TV episodes from cardboard box exile and uploading its encoded treasures to the Internet for the world to witness once again, the inevitable has occurred. The tape can fast-forward no further. There are no more episodes of GamePro TV to present.

All good things must come to an end.

In the case of GamePro TV, it was more cheese than greatness, and the actual end happened more than 14 years ago. But the show was a window into the world of video games and hardware that kept me, and many other young gamers, glued to the television every Saturday morning just to see what new stuff they would preview. I didn’t own many of the games they featured, and the codes they demonstrated for them were ultimately useless to me. But that still didn’t stop me from tuning in every weekend and absorbing all of the information and footage, and the (scripted) enthusiasm for the games exhibited by J.D. Roth and Brennan Howard would become engrained into the memories of my youth. True, the show spent a great deal of time dwelling on cheats rather than reviews and previews, and there were way too many sound test cheats featured, but it still holds a place in my childhood and it was my desire to present this show to gamers who had fond memories of GamePro TV, and for those viewing it for the first time.

And so, here it is, the last (partially) full episode of GamePro TV I recorded back in 1992. There are some parts of the show missing. I believe I recorded over the first portion of the show, knowing only from some brief, mangled footage that a SWAT cheat was given for Herzog Zwei for the Genesis, and later in the show a cheat for Rolling Thunder 2 for the Genesis was also recorded over. But the show does preview the laughably over-priced and under-performing CD-i system, plus the ultra-rare NES Hands Free Controller. Throw in a guy who embarrassingly can’t find out the way to defeat Dr. Robotnik at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog and you have yourself a fitting farewell to the series.

However, someone, somewhere must have other episodes of GamePro TV recorded, waiting to be uploaded to the Internet. And what about GamePro themselves? Surely they must have these episodes archived, and I would love to see the series put online for people to view once again, especially the episodes with Brennan "B-man" Howard.

I still have a few minutes of barely viewable footage of the first (and last) annual award show for GamePro TV. If I can find a VCR that can do a better job at tracking adjustment, then I will upload it online as well. If not, then enjoy this episode, as it’s the last one in my collection.

The Cutting Edge: Philips CD-i 910 (Compact Disc Interactive) – It’s the future… at only $1000! And it can display full-motion video at 16 million colors! "WOW!" And was the abandoned SNES CD-ROM add-on, also developed by Philips, supposed to be able to play CD-i discs as well? Interesting!